The Big Trip....Wilson style

This week we returned home from our long awaited trip back east!  In all honesty it was like a mini-big trip.  It wasn't three weeks long and we didn't see any church sites, but it reminded me of the long days of humidity and traveling.  We also saw some of the same non-church related sites.  So... here is the trip, mostly in picture format.

Day 1:  Wake up early to catch our 8 am flight out of Provo.  The plane was small but the flight was short. We switched planes in Denver and landed in New York at around 5 pm.  We had to take a bus (through Queen's) to get to a subway station, then we headed straight into Times Square.  

 Just in case you forget what year it is, go to times square and look up.

 We made it onto the giant screen thing.  But we are in the corner and I can't rotate this picture.

Next stop... Toys R Us

 This is where we found a dollar bill on the ground.  We thought we saw the lady who dropped it so we followed her and asked her.  She denied it.  Two seconds later we found another dollar bill.  Surprise blessing for choosing the right? I think so.

On to Rockefeller plaza

Mom, it is hard to tell from this picture, but that is the building with that restaurant that has a view of the today show.

We ended the day with Grand Central Station.  It was pretty awesome.  It also had a nice view of the Empire State building.

We headed to our hotel, which was surprisingly clean!  We got there at like 9 pm new york time, but we were exhausted!


Day 2:

We woke up, had a lovely continental breakfast (with the best bagels ever...) and headed into the city.  First stop (of a gazillion) was the World Trade Center memorial.

 This is the new gigantic tower that is still being built

 The memorial was really nice.  We both enjoyed it a lot.

 This is the survivor tree. It is the only tree still standing on that block

 This is a graveyard/cathedral across the street.  It was extremely old.  This guy was buried in 1778, I think.  The sayings on the headstones were super weird.  They spelled lies/lyes different on each one! Weird.

 Riley loves a good door.

 We walked (the long way) to Wall Street.  We finally made it, and I'll admit it was pretty cool!  How they build such huge buildings right next to each other is beyond me!  At this point it was like noon and I was getting pretty tired.  This is when I discovered that ice cold Lemonade would soon become my best friend.

 Short stop at Tiffany's! The inside is... a.maz.ing.

I think Riley's favorite stop of the day was the New York Stock Exchange.  As he said, "Allison, this is THE stock exchange".  Profound, I know.

Ok.  For most of the afternoon we hung out in Little Italy and Chinatown.   We ate some delicious Italian food (reconnected with my roots, ya know), dropped our camera in Alfredo, relaxed in the cool restaurant and geared up for the rest of the day. 

 This is us on the subway.  We were extremely hot and tired. I thought my shoulders might fall off. Sounds impossible, but I was truly concerned!

 We spent a little time in Central Park.  Lots of it was under construction but relaxing all the same.  

 In front of the Empire State building.

I'm really not sure what we were trying to get a picture of, but it was important enough to have someone else take it for us... 

We grabbed a quick dinner and some gelato (oooohhhh sooooooo goooooodddd!!) and went to our bus stop.  We took a Megabus to Baltimore.  It only took about three hours, and other than the guy behind us who was talking swearing the entire ride, it was pleasant.